I am a developer, working on a turn-based fantasy 4x game. It doesn't really have a name yet, the working title is Warlords & Wizards, but I am bad at naming, and prefer to spend time working on making the game awesome, then I am sure a good name will come in time.

My background is as a programmer working in the games industry for a major development studio, and this is my little pet project I work on during my spare time. It is starting to reach a state where it is playable, so I am reaching out for people to help me test it, and give me feedback and ideas on the design and content.

The goal is to create a game with a scope, scale and depth beyond what has previously been done in this genre. My inspiration is drawn from games like Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Fall From Heaven, Dominion, Europa Universalis, and Dwarf Fortress. Sadly turn-based fantasy games with an epic scale are a rarity these days. Most games released are simplistic and/or focused on tactical combat. So I set out to create a game that I myself would love to play.

The feature set I am planning for the initial release:
* Turn-based 4x fantasy strategy game.
* Randomly generated worlds, with randomly generated races, cultures, pantheons and organizations.
* Different games modes. You can play as a warlord bent on conquest and empire building, a wizard with enigmatic goals or as a demigod trying to ascend to godhood.
* Research spells and rituals in wizard mode.
* As a warlord you research cultural and military advances, guiding the progress of your people so your armies grow mighty enough to conquer the world.
* As a demigod as you gain followers you can transform the world and its inhabitants.
* When playing as a wizard, you research spells and rituals of increasing power. Seek out ancient artifacts, forbidden tomes and forge pacts with otherplanar creatures.
* Defend against planar invasions, or take the fight to the alternate planes in search of arcane power, riches or military allies.
* Random events to spice up gameplay and help weave interesting stories.
* Hidden cults plot and scheme. Uncover their hidden agendas, fight their intrigues or even try to manipulate them into becoming your pawns.
* Hire mercenary sellswords, summon magical allies or raise regiments from your towns and castles. Enhance regiments with attachments and upgrades.
* Recruit mighty heroes and send them to explore dungeons, ancient ruins and forgotten temples - or place them in charge of your armies and conquer the realms.
* Ancient evils slumber. Beware waking them or taking too long to complete your goals. Defend your holdings against all consuming gigantic oozes, the mad ghoul king, eldritch horrors, or other ancient evils of great power.
* Customizable settings: size of the world, cultural and racial variety, planar invasions frequency, allowed modes (wizard, warlord, demigod), how dangerous the world is, and many other things.
* Synchronous and asynchronous multiplayer.

Anyone interested in helping me test and assist me with input/ideas/opinions, send me a PM, and I will supply you with the current pre-alpha release of the game. The plan is to release a public beta before the game is finished, but at this point the game is still early in development, and while the basic framework is in place, and is playable, a lot of work remains to be done. However, I could very much use input on the game design and ideas for content. I will setup a website at some point, but right now I prefer to use my time on developing the actual game.

Sounds very interesting - I've played through a few of the fantasy TB offerings and must concur with your assessments. Between work and with Christmas coming, I don't have a bunch of spare time at the moment. That said, I think this is a great idea, I'd love to see more titles of this nature available.

If you are willing, I'd love to have a peek at what you have so far. I'll try to help out as best I can, but I imagine that I won't be able to contribute much 'til after the holidays.

Regards,

Shane

__________________"When I am abroad I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the Government of my country. I make up for lost time when I am at home."

I am an experienced turn based game player (fantasy & otherwise); I have never followed the RTS craze - I have always preferred to take time to think out my next move (not to say I couldn't handle a timer-based turn). Please let me know if you are still looking.